Fernando Hermógenes and Verônica Pereira
Brazil
Artists-in-residence September – November 2024
The Drawing Performance Laboratory with Hermógenes was created in 2018 as a result of a research project undertaken by the artist over almost two years, whose interest was to develop a methodology for art classes in which students would produce from their entire bodies in their visualities and processes.
After working for many years with the language of performance in the classroom, I understood that drawing performance was an interesting path to my goal, bringing together two practices that conversed very well with each other: drawing and performance.
At the Laboratory, the public has contact with unconventional and especially fun artistic production dynamics – from children to adults, everyone arrives saying they don’t know how to draw and leaves excited and encouraged to continue drawing and taking their bodies with them on the road.
The Laboratory was developed specifically for the school context, but it can be adapted to many other realities, materialities and desires, creating safe spaces for artistic experimentation and self-expression.
Whether it’s a short workshop or a longer project, the Laboratory is able to present and engage with artists from around the world who are references in the language of drawing performance. In Brazil, the Laboratory has been to five states and seven cities, with eight editions in total. Offered in a variety of spaces, from museums to public schools, it also had a virtual edition for the general public.
For the current program in Loviisa, which served seven schools in the region, nineteen classes and approximately 270 students, I selected a team of highly important reference artists, in addition to the actions that were created based on the needs and strengths of each school or class, such as the activities “Drawing a tower” (Tesjoki) or Inside-below-up-outside” (Ruukki).
In all, I brought ten artists as references to the schools and students of Loviisa. They are: Ram Samocha (Israel), Jenny Arran (United Kingdom), Milán Grygar (Hungary), Anna Maria Maiolino (Italy-Brazil), Hélio Oiticica (Brazil), Yves Klein (France), Jean-Baptiste Ganne (France), Sidney Pink (United States), Giuliano Guatta (United Kingdom) and Liesje Van den Berk (Netherlands).
About the artists
The edition of the Drawing Performance Laboratory with Hermógenes in Loviisa had the presence and very special collaboration of the artist from Paraíba, Verônica Pereira, photographer, performer and art educator. A researcher of the relationships, harmony and oppositions between the landscapes of her homeland and the landscapes she accesses in her geographical movements, she participated in the residency in Finnish schools researching photographic production in the context of the classroom in performance practices. She recorded, with videos and photos, the drawing performance actions and the developments of the proposals with the students.
Fernando Hermógenes
(São Joaquim de Bicas-MG) is a performer, art educator and writer. He researches relational art, drawing performance and pedagogical processes based on the language of performance with children in a school context.
He is the organizer of the Residência Livre de Vida Performativa-RLVP, with artists Isabela Bentes-RJ and Juliana Gaillac-RJ, and of the Drawing Performance Laboratory with
Hermógenes. He is a writer-collaborator at the Okan Archives Platform, matrigested by Professor Dr. Deise de Brito. He mentored the projects A Colaboradora – 4a Edição (2022), at the Instituto Procomum-SP and Laboratório INHOTIM (2024), at the Instituto Inhotim-MG. Author of the books O professor quando não é amado (2012) and Amar a Eternidade (2025), both published by Editora Baraúna.
